Rulers, all of whom needed to issue directives and edicts, developed writing offices, or chanceries, in which formal documents were drawn up. The Roman imperial chancery, called the Office of Letters (ab epistulis), was subdivided into a Greek and a Latin department. In the 5th century four letter offices existed, all under the ultimate control of the magister officiorum (“master of offices”): the scrinium epistolarum (“letter office”) handled mainly foreign, legal, and administrative affairs; the scrinium libellorum (“petitions office”) handled petitions and investigations; the scrinium memoriae (“memorandum office”) composed shorter imperial decrees; and the scrinium dispositionum dealt with administration. From the 4th century, a group (schola) of notaries had come into being, some of whom served the emperor as personal secretaries. Two centuries later a special confidential (a secretis) secretary existed. In the Byzantine Empire in the 8th to 9th centuries, the scrinium epistolarum and the scrinium libellorum merged to form a new department under the koiaistor (a high palace official), while the secretaries had all come under the office of the protoasekretis (head of the secretaries). An official called the mystikos handled the emperor’s secret correspondence. In preparing edicts or other laws, the koiaistor, after consulting the emperor, made a first draft of the bill, had the official copy drawn up by notaries, and then verified its accuracy before it was validated. From the 9th century onward other high court officials participated in the validation of Byzantine charters.

The important governmental documents of the late Roman and early Byzantine empires include laws, edicts, decrees (imperial decisions concerning civil and penal law), and rescripts (the emperor’s replies to inquiries from corporate and administrative bodies or private persons). In the Byzantine era documents concerning more day-to-day affairs can be grouped under the headings of foreign letters, privileges, and administration. Foreign letters include correspondence with other rulers, treaties (regarded not as an agreement between equals but as an act of grace or privilege granted by the emperor, and made out as such), and letters accrediting imperial ambassadors. The most solemn and splendid form of privilege was the chrysobullos logos, so named because the word logos, meaning the emperor’s solemn word, appeared in it three times, picked out in red ink. Written in the carefully embellished chancery script reserved for the emperor’s personal documents, the text consists of the usual parts—that is, the invocatio, intitulatio, inscriptio, arenga, narratio, dispositio, sanctio, date, and the subscriptio. It was sealed with the golden bull.

From about the 12th to the mid-14th century, a simplified form, the chrysobullon sigillion, was used for privileges of lesser importance. It was not signed by the emperor himself but was held to be validated by the insertion, by the emperor, in red ink of the menologema, a statement of month and indiction. It, too, was sealed with a golden bull. The administrative documents of the Byzantine imperial chancery include the prostagma, or horismos, a plain and short document known since the beginning of the 13th century. If directed to a single person, the document starts out with a short address, but, in all other cases, it begins immediately with the narratio, followed by the dispositio. The emperor replaced his signature with the menologema. Unlike the privileges, this document was not rolled up but, instead, was folded, and then closed by means of a wax seal stamped with the imprint of the imperial signet ring.

In addition to those emanating from the imperial offices, there were other types of documents issued in the Byzantine Empire. These include those issued by despots and imperial officials and, in the ecclesiastical sphere, by patriarchs and bishops. There were also private documents. The documents issued by the despots carried a silver seal, showing their intermediate status between that of imperial documents sealed with the gold seal and that of documents drawn up by imperial officials and sealed with lead bulls. Documents issued by imperial officials were simpler. They lacked the protocol, and the personal signature of the issuing official was written in black ink. The detailed date comprises the menologema. The documents of the Byzantine patriarchs are in many respects analogous to the imperial documents and symbolize the high status of the patriarch of Constantinople. They were, however, sealed with lead bulls. Byzantine private documents are almost exclusively notarial instruments. They are immediately recognizable by the crosses marked at the top of the documents. Used in lieu of the signature, the cross was the mark of the sender and contained his name and official function in one of its angles. The document was either signed by witnesses, or at least the cross preceding their names is autograph. Following that is the signature of the notary. These documents were not usually sealed.

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